He Doesn’t Know All, but Bo Knows Bo : It’s the Time of Year for Jackson, After a Rest, to Change Seasons

“Yo, Bo, smile,” said a young fan aiming a camera at Bo Jackson as the Kansas City Royals’ outfielder emerged from the dugout before a game at Anaheim Stadium.

A crowd gathered as Jackson stepped into the batting cage.

“Bo knows batting practice,” a fan shouted, mimicking the “Bo knows . . . “ commercial as Jackson belted a pitch into the center-field bleachers.

As Jackson, America’s most celebrated two-sport star, ran into the outfield to throw, a crowd gathered along the left-field line. When he teased the fans, pretending that he was about to toss a ball into the stands, hundreds of arms rose as one to catch it.

Bo knows, all right. He knows how to work a crowd. Although it was a meaningless game between teams out of the running at the end of the season, the fans had come to see him. There were banners saluting him, one of which read: “Bo Knows Ballet.”

Now, Bo may not know how to dance “Swan Lake,” but Bo knows baseball . . . and football.

In his life as a Royal this season, he has hit 32 homers, driven in 105 runs and stolen 26 bases.

Is this Jackson’s best baseball season?

“I don’t know,” Jackson said. “That’s for you all to decide.”

And his life as a Raider?

After baseball season ends this weekend, Jackson plans to take a week off before reporting for the rest of the National Football League season.

“I’m going to take my usual time that I’ve taken off for the past 2 1/2 years,” Jackson said. “I’m going to take a week and then I’ll report.”

Is it difficult to make the transition from baseball to football?

“Nope,” Jackson said. “It’s what I’ve been doing all of my life. So it’s easy for me. Next question.”

Raider Coach Mike Shanahan said he hoped Jackson would stop by Raider headquarters in El Segundo and pick up a playbook. So, did Jackson plan to visit the Raiders this trip?

“Why should I?” Jackson said. “I’ll deal with the Raiders when I get there.”

Has Jackson been following the Raiders?

“I don’t get up every morning and go get the paper to see what the Raiders have done,” he said.

Does he think he can help revive the slow-starting Raiders, who have lost two of three games?

“One man don’t make a team,” Jackson said. “I’m just one of the guys on the team. Whatever I can do to help my team win, that’s what I do. I don’t try to go out and do more than I’m capable of.”

Although his TV commercials are for cross-training athletic shoes, Jackson said he doesn’t train for football by lifting weights or doing extra running.

“I stay in football shape by running during baseball,” Jackson said. “I don’t have time to work out, because I play every day.

“I don’t get tired. There is nothing physical about sports, it’s all mental. If you can handle it upstairs, the rest is easy. There is nothing physical about what we do. You put it in your mind and go out and do it.

“After the first day (of football practice) my neck will be sore from the hitting. But after that it feels like I’ve been out there for the whole season.”

Jackson said it’s no problem for him to play football without training camp.

“The other guys say they wish that they could miss that hot camp and come in and play,” Jackson said. “I wouldn’t say camp is a waste of time. The younger guys need it to see what the NFL is all about. But the older guys . . . don’t.”

What does Bo think of Deion Sanders, who left the New York Yankees to play for the Atlanta Falcons?

“I don’t (think of Sanders),” Jackson said. “I have better things to do.”

Is Jackson a better baseball or football player now. “I never knew I was that bad,” he said. “You get wiser after playing because you learn more about the games and you learn what the opponents are doing to try to stop you.”

Jackson has been bothered by minor injuries this season. He has pulled muscles in his left leg.

“He’s had a tough summer,” Royal trainer Mickey Cobb said. “He had some leg problems in the early summer and it’s carried over to late summer, but he’s getting along real good.”

So does playing football and baseball put too much stress on Jackson’s body?

“We only have one person to gauge it on and that’s Bo,” Cobb said. “He seems to enjoy (playing both games). But he may have an advantage because he doesn’t have to go through training camp and his body has not received the wear and tear that football offers it.

“I suppose a person would wonder if he were in shape enough to play football. All summer long he does a lot of running, and I would think he’s not in too bad a shape.”

There have been reports that Jackson is trying to save himself for football by curtailing his base-stealing.

What say you, Bo?

“Somebody told you a lie,” Jackson said.